The Shadowlit Realms
| Labyrinth of the Mind |
CatfishFirst of all, let me just give forewarning to anyone who has not seen the film Catfish and may have an interest in doing so, I will be revealing spoilers of the movie below..
Alright! I just finished watching the Catfish as I have said, and while I would not say that the movie itself was disappointing I will say that I think the way in which the film was advertised was misleading, deceptive, and bordering on blatantly false. I was super hyped this movie based upon the previews I had seen for it, which sold the movie as being some great suspenseful, mind-bending thriller, compared it to Hitchcock, edified the trailer to give it a foreboding and ominous feeling. And further more I was completely surprised to discover the movie is in fact a documentary, of which in the previous there was nothing to indicate this fact.
So as soon as the movie is available on DVD I bump it up to the top of my Netflix list, and come to watch it, I find it to be something completely different than what I was expecting and hoping for.
The marketing campaign for the movie could be seen as being intentionally ironic considering what the film itself was in fact actually about, or perhaps it was just to produce the very effect it had to build up hyper and get people to want to see the film. Maybe a little bit both.
Needless to say, come to find out the movie is in fact a documentary about a photographer living in New York, when one of his photos is seen by a young girl Abby who paints it and sends him the painting, and thus proving to in fact be quite talented, from this he develops a friendship with the girl and becomes involved with all of her family all this strictly through Facebook, and occasional phone calls.
In the course of things he begins to establish a relationship with Abby's older sister Megan, who is alleged a musician among many other things when he happened to discover that one of the songs she supposedly sung, was taken from another artist and put off as her own. This caused him to engage in an investigation to discover just who these people in fact really were and what else they may be lying about.
1:31 AM - 2/12/2011 - comments {0} - post commentLaw and Order BluesI am no fan of the TV show Law and Order and do not make a habit of watching it, in fact I cannot stand the shows, but my grandma likes to watch them and when I sometimes have dinner at her house she will have it on and so in consequence I will end up watching it. I do not know exactly which of the 500 different Law and Orders she actually watches but I do know that the show really makes you want to root for the bad guy because the cops and lawyers on those shows are just so completely unsympathetic that they make you want to see the loose and bring wrong.
For one thing apparently they have never acutally heard of "innocent until proven guilty" becasue they make snap judgements about people in which they will automatically presume someone is guilty purely based upon thier personal opinion of that person and instead of fowllowing the evidence to the criminal they will decide whom they want the criminal to be and try and dig up evidence to support that idea.
Than they act like total school yard bullies and particularly violate peoples rights and use very thug like techniques upon people, they get right up in a persons face yelling at them and trying to threaten them and there may have been a couple of times where they have actually physically assaulted an unarmed person, pushing them up against a wall or some such thing.
In addition to the fact that they are always so arrogant and think they are right no matter what, and even when they find out that they are wrong and had falsely accused someone they show no signs of remorse and still act as if they were completely justified and as if innocent or not the person deserved it.
They are just so completely smug that when the trail comes at the end of the show, no matter what heinous crime the criminal committed there is the part of me that really just wants them to get a non guilty verdict, even if I don't approve of what they did and believe they do deserve to be punished, the cops on that show are just that infuriating I cannot stand to see them "win" in the end. 6:55 PM - 1/22/2011 - comments {0} - post commentThe CapeI was quite excited when I saw the previews for the new series "The Cape" though I will confess that while it is true I never really got much into the reading of comic books nonetheless there was always something about them which held for me a certain degree of interest. I love comic book movies and I am intrigued by comic book characters, and the vigilante fantasy of which they offer as well as the alternative reality involved in many of them.
So upon watching the the perimeter for "The Cape" I was left with some mixed feelings about it. I was not completely blown away by it as I would have liked to be, and yet there were still some things which I very much enjoyed and other things which give me some difficulty.
One of the things I really enjoyed about "The Cape" is that it really touches back to that old school comic style in a way which is reminiscent of the original Batman movie while the new Batman movies bring a darker, edgier gritty realism, there will always be a special place in my heart for the original.
But with this high point for "The Cape" also comes one of its downfalls, which is the fact that at moments I feel as if it indeed is too much of a rip off of Batman, while there are some acute differences between the two, there are also for me some inescapable similarities. In some ways "The Cape" feels like when you buy a generic brand of something, for example stores which try to sell their own version of Barbie, and because they are not the official Barbi brand they are not exactly like Barbi thus they are not quite as well made, there heads are a little too big, or the hair is not as good of quality, the features are not as realistic, you get the gist. So in some ways "The Cape" is like a generic Batman, it is a slightly cheaper and more generic version.
On the other hand though I know that sounds harsh, there are some rather clever things about the show which I quite enjoy. I love the Carnival of Criminal's and I highly enjoyed that illusionist, touch of magic, escapism idea which is brought into the character, the idea of Magician as super hero highly appeals to me and the cape itself is a rather nifty device. Another thing of which I quite enjoy is the clever use of Orwell within the show, Orwell being a blog run by an anonymous source which seems to know everything that is going on in the city and exposuses corruption. I also like the fact that the show does not actually make a big deal about the whole hidden identity thing, because that is a bit of originality.
Another concept which I find highly intriguing that was introduced into the show is the existence of an underground organization of Assassins known as the Arcana (or something close to that) which are in fact based of the 24 cards of the Major Arcana of the Tarot.
8:55 PM - 1/21/2011 - comments {0} - post commentClash of the TitansOf course upon seeing the previews for Clash of the Titan's I just had to see the movie, and I have to say I was left a bit disappointed. I think part of it was the fact that my hype was built up too much and my expectations were set too high I also think part of the problem was my own skewed perceptions. The movie did have some rather cool scenes and some great shots. It had some very appealing visuals, and I cannot say that the story was bad but it was quite obnoxious to me.
Naturally one of the big gist problems was the fact that it should come as no surprise that I was not exactly on the side of the humans, I thought they were acting like sniveling ingrates, who seemed to forget the very important fact that, hello, they would not even be living and breathing at all if the gods hadn't created them, and yet they think they then can become better than the gods? It seems to me that all myths end up coming to the same basic conclusion, creating humans ended up being a very bad idea. Which leads me into the next problem I had with the movie was the fact that I wanted more of the gods. It was quite a disappointment that for one thing Poseidon did not appear at all within the movie, I do have some partiality to him, and other than Zeus and Hades, neon of the other gods were really given much of a roll at all. Hades though I do have to admit was pretty wickedly awesome. There is also the fact that I have never really been a fan of Perseus, and well the Greek Heroes in general often tend to come across as being unbearably obnoxious. Perseus was an arrogant, prideful, Hubris filled spoiled little brat. And of course the whole Medusa myth always makes me mad. Medusa looked awesome in the movie, but of course it was inevitable that she could not win, and the slaying of Medusa was a thoroughly unjust act. One of the coolest part of the movies was the jin, mysterious, no longer human desert dwellers that control giant scorpions, also Charon was pretty awesome. 10:05 PM - 4/3/2010 - comments {2} - post commentDaybreakersI just saw the movie Daybreakers, and I have to say, I was so excited when I first saw the previews for this movie, and could not wait to see it, and I was NOT disappointed. It lived up to its every expectation and than surpassed it. A fabulously done, brilliant vampire movie. In fact one of the best, most clever, unique, and well made vampire movies ever done. There were just so many great elements working together within this film that I do not know where to begin with it.
First of all it combined two of my favorite things together, vampires (of course) and dystopia, and it was the most original and unique story line for vampires that it took vampires into another evolution in the way they are portrayed. The movie was based upon the idea that vampires have taken full power and control over the world, no longer, as so often seen and done before, to they lurk in the shadows, and live as refugees among humans. They became the majority and hold all positions of authority, and they run a civilization much the same as humans, their are vampire politician, vampire police officers. And one of the interesting twists within the movie, is the fact that to say the least there still exists corruption in power, greed, and government. The human race is on the verge of extinction and humans are hunted down to be farmed for the blood but the supply is running out quick. In fact the crisis of blood and the blood shortage can be seen as a parallel to our financial crises which leads me into another one of the very proactive and brilliant things about this film, the sociopolitical aspect of the film. This was not just another typical, run of the mill, high powered action adventure type of vampire film. It was in many ways a finally crafted and intellectual film. One of the scenes early on within the film was just really quite remarkable, in which a desperate vampire, rather clearly paralleling a home lass man is seen upon the streets with a sign around his neck which reads "Hungry in need of blood" and has he harasses this passing couple on the street the cops quickly show up and subdue the vampire. Another one of the great moments of the film was this scene that was reminiscent of Nazi Germany. It is discovered that when the vampires go for too long without blood they begin to change. Which I just have to say is yet another great aspect of this film, the way it played with some of the more common and old school myths and folk lore about vampires, in taking the old idea that vampires have the capability to turn into bats, the vampires which have gone without blood for too long, and out of desperation start feeding upon other vampires or even themselves begin to turn into these creatures that to say the least bare a resemblance to bats, but there is also something rather zombie like in these creatures. They become completely savage, and no longer appear to look like recognizable people, they loose every last aspect of humanity and become completely bestial, because of this they are treated as a nuisance and 3rd rate class. In one scene a group of these creatures are rounded up, put into chains, and exterminated as they are chained to a truck which drives them out into the sunlight. While those watching on cheering for the death are themselves in peril of becoming just like them. The other absolutely brilliant and fantastic aspect of this film was its editing and the very way it was shot. Most particularly, I loved the fact that though it was indeed a very modern film, there was something within it that was reminiscent of old film noir, the way it was shot and its editing gave the modern backdrop a very classic appeal and feeling, and I love modern movies that find clever ways of replicating the classics. 5:46 PM - 1/16/2010 - comments {0} - post commentThe Fourth Kind A HoaxMuch to my great shame, I have to admit that I allowed myself to be duped by Hollywood. It had come to my attention that the movie The Fourth Kind was really just a hoax, and that the alleged acutal footage shown within the move was all faked for the movie and that there turely is not such thing as a Dr. Abagail Tyler, with whom the move portrayed as having been an acutal person, all of the characters within the movie were portrayed as if they were based upon acutal people, but it was all just one rather clever work of fiction. I must say that it was a rather celver fraud that they put on. In truth the movie was only loosely based upon some disseapricnes which did occur within Nome, Alaska and so someone got the idea to make a movie around the idea of a possible ailen abudiction theroy in regards to the disseaperences, but there was no acutal documentation of any such strange or unsusual events. 6:56 PM - 11/16/2009 - comments {2} - post commentThe BoxI have just seen the movie The Box, and I thought it was quite an interesting movie which had some intriguing elements to it, though I wonder as a movie overall how successful it really is, for my own enjoyment of it might have a rather unique quality, though I will try not to sound pretentious, for I have a feeling that it may go in that direction. The movie made a heavy allusion to the play No Exit by Sartre, which I happened to love and thought was absolutely brilliant. The basic philosophy and principles of No Exit feature predominately within the movie and in some ways it also does work as a modern day version of No Exit, which is one of the things I particularly enjoyed about the movie, but also one of the elements which may cause some difficulties.
I am not sure if someone could truly appreciate some of the finer moments of the movie without having that understanding and background of No Exit, and in that it would not be very successful, for a movie should be able to stand upon its own merit and well as sad as it is, in this day and age one most presume that the general population watching the film are not familiar with No Exit. But I wonder if this is some hope that this movie will inspire others to go out and read it. But not to get off track, there were a couple of aspects about the movie which did not truly "fit" that is there were several little loose ends that were left out there, some things not made completely clear, and the movie did leave itself open to a few different possibly story lines that seemed to have been suggested but than left off. But part of the moving not being completely tied up at the end, is a reflection back to No Exit, and so these flaws if you will within the movie can be more easily forgiven and accepted, even to a point understood if one as the background of No Exit. There is a greater meaning which than may sink in. Another interesting feature of the movie is that for me at least it brought to mind a certain element of the works of Hitchcock, and there was this one line within the movie, that I think is quite crucial and carries throughout the story, in which one of the characters says something to the effect of "I love a little mystery" So I myself felt that the movie was really very clever, and I respected what they did with No Exit within the film.
3:48 PM - 11/8/2009 - comments {0} - post commentBlindnessI just watched this movie called Blindness and it was an interesting movie, with an interesting concept but it was always very frustrating at times and had me yelling at the TV on more than one occasion. The idea behind the movie is that there was an epidemic of blindness, some unknown syndrome, that was contagious would make people go blind and when it was discovered the government started putting people in quarantine. But it seemed at times that the movie was more about the complete and total incompetence of the human race (not that I of all people should be surprised at that). First of all, these people are blind, and they just became blind instantly but when they are put into quarantine they are all just dumped into this building and left there with no sort of guidance or anything, and they are given no information, have no idea where they are. They are just left completely abandoned.
Though even more annoying, because in a crisis one can always rely upon the government to be completely incompetent and just make the situation worse by not using any logic or reason, is the blind people themselves. Ok, yeah it would be a shock to suddenly wake up blind and than be taken away to some unknown place, and it would take some while to get use to, but in this movie it is as if going blind also made the people loose all ability to think and reason, and function as a basic human being. It was literally like, oh well since I am blind now, I guess I will just crap right here on the floor. It was as if becoming blind also reduced them to a state of infantile mind, which I don't think was suppose to be an actual part of the disease. And I just kept saying, umm hello....there are actual regular blind people in the world, who can still function like thinking, intelligent human beings, just cause you ended up blind does not make you into a slobbering idiot. So in a way it was really a movie just about people who are ridiculously and irritatingly incompetent. Then in the place where they were being quarantined they were divided up into different wards and one of the wards apparently seemed to be like the criminal ward (now it wasn't actually suppose to be that) but the people in that ward just acted like complete delinquents and somehow one of the members had a gun. Now they were outnumbered by everyone else, and only had one gun, but still all the people decided to just let that one ward boss them around, and just did whatever they said and were afraid to try and confront them at all. So apparently when the people became blind not only did they turn into slobbering idiots but also they became sniveling pussies. In a way it was like a zombie movie if you replaced being a zombie with being blind. 10:20 PM - 9/18/2009 - comments {0} - post commentInglorious BastardsI just saw the movie Inglorious Bastards and I LOVED IT! It was truly one of the most brilliant and best movies I have seen this year. Worthy of an Oscar nomination by far. As a further testimony to the brilliancy of this film, from the start it had two things working against it (at least for me) and that is I am generally not a Quinten Tarentino fan, and I am generally not into war movies, particularly movies about WW2 and the whole Nazi thing, because that is just not an area of interest to me, yet the previews were still compelling enough to make me want to see the movie and after having done so I was left in awe by it.
I have to say, this movie alone almost made me completely change my opinion about Quintin Tarentino, it seemed to me in the making of this movie, he was much more refined and mature than in previous movies of his. He was able to restrain himself and did not go over the top in places where it would have been easy to do so. He kept his edginess and his unconventionality and used it to the best of his advantage by not making the movie simply ridiculous in taking it too far. It was an extremely well executed movie. So much so that while I am a big fan of Brad Pitt and he was one of the main factors that first tempted to seeing it, it wasn't was if he alone completely stole the show and was the sole part in making it all worthwhile. Everything in the movie worked in perfect harmony together. One of the reasons why I am hesitant to watch movies that focus around WW2 and Nazis, and Hitler is the fact that plain and simple they are over done, every single year there is at least one (and usually move) movies about this subject, to the point where I am just tired of it, but Inglorious Bastards was able to take what truly is a cliched subject in the movie business and give it a creative and unique spin, it stood out as completely different than any Nazi movie ever made before, this was in part achieved by the fact that it was a pure fantasy. That is, even though it was about an actual historic event, unlike most other movies of this kind it was not inspired by or based off a true story, it was a completely fictions and original plot that revolved around a historical true event. Of course I also just loved the ironic and satirical humor which permeated throughout the movie, it was really very clever, and the editing was superb, there was a sense of artistry in the way the movie was filmed. 6:26 PM - 8/29/2009 - comments {0} - post commentGlass LipsI have just finished watching a very unique and to say the least bazaar film called Glass Lips, now this movie is not for everyone, it is something of an acquired taste. It does "make sense" nor truly have to, at least not in terms of the way we think of most movies. That is it does not have a cohesive and clear plot, or really follow a storyline, with a beginning, middle and end. It is an abstract and surreal film that is full of symbolic and metaphoric meaning, though even I will not be pompous enough to claim I truly understand all of what was being conveyed within the film, though I think I did pick up on some concepts and ideas, at least my interpretations.
The film was a work of true artistry, in many ways it felt like visual poetry. Whoever made the film (cannot recall the name off the top of my head now) had truly an artists eye. There was a genius and strongly effective use of color, contrast, space, negative space, angles, perspective, which gave the feeling that every single shot held strong symbolic meaning and was a metaphor for something. It really made you want to start looking for clues and trying to make connections and puzzle it out to understand. One of the other things I really appreciated about the film was the fact that throughout there was no dialogue, narration, or speaking, but there was a very creative use of sound effects, as with the visual imagery of the movie, the sound effects gave the impression of intention, and of some meaning being held behind each sound. Religious symbolism and meaning was strewn throughout the movie and done very overtly and blatantly as it was clear to be one of the intended focal points which permeated throughout the film. The "main character" for lack of a better word was portrayed as being a Christ-Figure, almost something of a modern Christ, but the main focus of the movie seemed to be upon his mother (there was the suggestion of some Oedipal complex within) who was very strongly portrayed as a Virgin Marry figure, though one of the concepts that seemed to come up often was this idea of the old Virgin and Whore concept, making the two roles simultaneous with each other, as it seemed the mother figure was in fact both the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene which is part of what drove the sons relationship with his mother, as seeming to waver between child and lover. Veneration and worship of woman seemed to play a strong role throughout the film as well, and by the end of it, it gave a strong Cult of the Virgin feeling to it, while at the same time, this reverence for women was tied in with sensuality and sexuality. Ideas of juxtaposing purity with carnality played throughout the film, and contrasts and contradictions in general seemed to be quite frequent. Adding to the surreal effect of the movie the lines between Dreams/Visions and reality seemed to be blurred if not completely non-existent so one could not decipher what was "real" and what was illusion, or if indeed they truly were one in the same. There is a lot within the film that I think can only be understood through each individuals personal interpretation, much like a visual work of art, while whoever made the film had no doubt their own personal vision and intention, the way in which it is constructed I think invites the viewer to personal interpretation. 10:28 PM - 8/28/2009 - comments {0} - post commentDistrict 9I just saw the movie District 9 and I really quite enjoyed it. I thought it was rather an interesting and creative movie, very different. While the subject of aliens is one which has been one time and time again, and more oft than not when I see a new alien movie I always groan and wish someone would think of something else to do instead (yet I still somehow always end up seeing the movies anyway) District 9 took this subject in a very different and unique direction which has not been previously explored, not in this way.
Rather than being a typical big bang action packed sci-fi adventure, or being typical alien horror flick (and I do like my horror and big bang action adventure) it was in fact quite socio-political and took a much more realistic, if you will, look upon the subject. It provided with the scenario of what would happen if in fact alien life forms came into contact with earth, but it looked at it from the point of view of treating the aliens as if they were sort of like refugees or "foreigners" for lack of a better word who have been stranded upon the planet earth, and what sort of conflicts and interactions would emerge between the civilians and the aliens, as well as how the situation would be dealt with and what the government would do. It explores issues about interspecies prejudice so to speak, as well as corrupt government, policies that have to be made about dealing with the aliens. Basically it presents the case of the possibility of what could happen, if indeed alien life ever were to be made known to human beings, and to come to visit earth. It was also all shot as if it were a documentary which added to the creativity of it, as well as the realism of it. 2:50 PM - 8/22/2009 - comments {0} - post commentThe People Under the StairsI am totally addicted to Fear Net. If you do not know what that is, it came with our package deal of channels we subscribed to get when we got a cable box. Though it is not like a regular channel, it is exclusively On Demand, but everything on it is free, and well if you haven't guessed, it is all horror movies or other things related to fear. At the start of each month it gets a whole new selection of movies but because of this, older movies will expire.
So when I have the time or just feel like chilling, I love to go onto Fear Net and see which movies are getting ready to expire and watch whichever appeals to me most. So today I had the time finally, for the first time this month to pop onto Fear Net, and on their they have a category dedicated just to Wes Craven, who of course I love, and I noticed the movie The People Under the Stairs was up there and ready to expire. I only saw the movie once, and that was a long long time ago, like when I was eight years old, or something close, but it was one of those movies that left an impression on me and that I always remembered. And I remember thinking it was just this really good horror movie. Watching it as an eight year old, I have memories of it, being this really terrifying movie and I always thought it was so scary. I had such vivid recollections, of those human creatures that were kept under the stairs, and how creepy they were, their hands come up through the stairs and the walls. So I just had to watch it, and watching it as an adult it really is very camp, it will still always be one of my horror classics, but it is just so funny, how watching it now, it became like a totally different movie, and was far more silly then horrifying. But still I have to love it. 6:39 PM - 12/30/2008 - comments {0} - post commentThe Day the Earth Stood StillI just saw The Day the Earth Stood Still, and for the most part I really enjoyed it. I absolutely loved the primiess of the movie, and I thought there were some good lines in the movie. Of course my favorite quote was "If the Earth dies you die, if you die the Earth Survives." The speicfal effects in the movie were very cool. I totally want one of those black autobot things to keep in front of my house. They were awsome, and I loved all the powers that Klutoo had, they were totally cool. The sphears were also awsome. And Keanu was Keanu. He really his a horrible actor and yet in my own strange way I enjoy him. I have to see a movie that has Keanu in it. It is like one of those things that is so bad it is good and hey you know he does make a perfect Alien.
Now, the problem with the moive, was the ending of it. That was a big let down. I was all hyped up through the movie, cheering for the destruction of the human race, but then becasue it is a hollywood comercial movie, of course the human race had to be spared at the end, which for me was a dissapointment. A happy ending would have been if the Ailiens went ahead with thier plans and destroyed the human race to save the planet. The woman was just stupid, and could not have really bought that crap about "oh we can change" that she was spewing out.
If I ran into some Alien race and they told me they were going to exterminate the human race to save the Earth, I would not try and talk them out of it. What hope does the earth have is some supposedly surperior race allows itself to be duped by the stupidity of humans.
But still, it is wroth seeing. 4:59 PM - 12/26/2008 - comments {0} - post commentGhost HouseWell right now I am in a state of both anticipation and trepidation. So what has put me in such a state? Well as you all know by now, I love horror, and I particuarly look forward ot Horrorfest, even if I thought that last years was not as good as the first year. But that is another topic. So there is this new thing out now called Ghost House, which is if you have not already guessed, a collection of what was suppose to be edgey new horror movies that went straight to DVD, though they have not yet been released they will be this month, soon. So I cannot wait to dig my claws into a new venue of horror, yet I fear that they may prove to be B rate, or all about slash and gore.10:15 PM - 10/12/2008 - comments {0} - post commentUnexpected SurprisesSaturday nights can prove to be quite amusing and interesting TV wise, as well often the weakens are completely dead for anything decent on TV, but while I am flipping through the channels desperately looking for something that will do well enough to just play in the background, I often stumble upon some little curiosity that I normally would never have found or watch, but for lack of anything else I figure why not. So tonight I cam across this movie of which I have never heard of before called Nemesis Games, and well so far it does seem to be rather interesting.8:46 PM - 10/4/2008 - comments {1} - post commentLate Night SpecialSince there is never anything on Sunday's I was flipping through the channles to try and find something at least somewhat tolerable to put upon the tv while I sit here at the computer and I happend upon PBS, though I usually never whatch that channel, I stumbled upon this rather odd, quirky looking movie. The sort of thing which I probably normally would not really pay any attention but I am here all by myself with nothing else to do, so I thought it could be kind of fun to watch, and it is quite amusing.
I have no idea what it is. It was already started when I first turnedit on, but in some ways in reminds me of the19th century style Gothic Novels. Though the moive I think is acutally set in the 40's based on the clothing and such, and it takes place in England.
There are these two old ladies, and one of them becomes convinced she saw a murder upon a train but no one will take her seriously becasue there is no proof of anything, so she gets her frineds to help her try and uncover the mystery. And there is this old man who lives in this estate that looks like a Castle almost, and his wife had died, and now he is bitter tword his sons. 8:36 PM - 8/24/2008 - comments {2} - post commentCharlie BartlettI just finnished watching Charlie Bartlett and it was a quirky, fun, witty, little movie. It was about this kid Charlie, who comes from a wealthy family, but his life is screwed up, his dad is in prison, and his mom is a bit of a nutcase and he has to take care of her. After getting kicked out of a serirs of private schools, becasue in his quest to belong and just get people to like him, he ends up getting trouble, he finally ends up in public school.
Of course at first things do not work out so well for him, as he has had no experince with public school before and so he does not fit in there, but he starts to trun things around for himself. He has a natural gift for being able to help other people striaghten out thier own problems and start listening to the kids, when no one else will here them and helping them figure thier lives out. He acts as a sort of amature pychologist using the boys bathroom as his office. Though he is still trying to figure out his own life.
It is not cliche, lame, sterotypical, or just some overworked, and not very good story line as the majority of highschool movies are, but it was quite clever in the way it was done, and rather enjoyable. 8:13 PM - 8/1/2008 - comments {0} - post commentThe Dark KnightI just got back from seeing the new Batman moive, The Dark Knight, and becasue of Heath Ledger it has been getting all kinds of hype, and I hear people go on and on about it and how great they thought Heath was, and that his preformace blew Jack Nickleson out of the water and so on and so forth, but after seeing the movie I have to say I was a little dissapointed.
It was good, and I really liked Batman The Beginning, but I had exepcted a little something more from The Dark Knight, maybe becasue all of the hype, but something about it just did not feel quite there for me, and I was not so convinved that he did out do Jack Nickleson. Though I remeber of course when I first watched the original Batman movies I was quite young at the time, but I remember the Joker in the original movie had left quite the impact upon me, and I think like the first Batman movie better than this version of it. 3:35 PM - 7/26/2008 - comments {1} - post commentUnfair Type-CastingI just got done watching the Seeker, a movie that was made after a young adults fantasy series, though I have not actually read the books, the movie looked good, and it was not bad considering because of the books it was PG, so it was not the best thing ever, but still I enjoyed it, and it had some cool stuff. But there is one thing I take issue with, which is a common occurrence in many fantasy movies and books. It is often the case, that such animals as ravens and snakes are cast in alliance with the evil/dark forces. Wolves are often also used in such a way, but not always and not in this particular movie.
Though on the one hand I can understand why the movies and books tend to do this, and yes it is just fiction, but the truth is, the average or general person cannot be relied upon to use such logical and intelligent thinking in many cases. It is a simple fact that shortly after the movie Jaws came out, there was an outbreak in people killing sharks left and right. Now of course the reason why such animals are so often cast in roles as villains companions is because they are regarded as "creepy" and so many people generally tend to dislike them. But that is just the problem. As most people have rather illogical reasons for disliking such animals, often based on misunderstanding, or misinformation, when they are already ambivalent, to than have the idea that they are somehow bad drilled into them constantly, does not really do the animals any favors. The other problem I have with it, is that many fantasy stories draw upon Pagan ideas, with their use of magic, some of the creatures they create, myths, legends and so on, are taken straight from Pagan belief systems, or heavily influenced by them, but in Paganism such animals as ravens and snakes are often revered as sacred and do not come with negative connotations. So while I for one am not often to take fiction seriously, and if the rest of the human population could be trusted to use such thinking as well, it would not be a problem, yet on the other hand, I do think it would be kind of nice for a change to allow them to get to play on the side of the good guys for a while.
10:39 PM - 5/30/2008 - comments {0} - post commentNightmare ManI have been watching the latest Horrorfest movies, though I have to say, I think the first ones were overall better than the newest set. Nightmare Man was overall a bit cheesy and poorly made, with a bit of a slasheer flick feeling to it, a sort of typical B-Rate horror movie that are rather common, but there was one moment in which the movie captured the element of fear in a way which had to be appericated.
This woman and her husband were driving out on this road in the middle of nowhere, through the wilderness, when the car ran out of gass, it was starting to grow late, and the husband was going to go and see if he could find a gas station, and convinved his wife to stay and wait for him, of course he does not return and now it has grown dark. The woman is strandaded in the car, becasue it has no gass she cannot go anywhere, when she begins to hear things outside, and at one moment while she was in the car, the trunk suddenly starts to open and she hears something moving around on top of the car. It is the perfect moment, becasue there is nothing you can really do. Being inside a car will only offer miminal protection, and she could not drive off, and if you thought something was outside you would not want to get out of the car.
Also I have to say the movie did end with a bit of a twist to it. 9:40 PM - 5/25/2008 - comments {0} - post comment
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 For though All are not able to write books, all conceive themselves able to judge them. ~The Monk
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